Nonverbal initiative exchange based on virtual field model

This paper presents nonverbal initiative exchange for robot control through virtual field. The approaches for robot operation can be divided into two main branches; autonomous control and manual control. And initiative exchange between the human and the robot often takes place. For instance, an autonomous robot normally does not require the user intervention, while a user sometimes would like to control the robot manually. Therefore, the mode switches between autonomous control and manual control are desired in many cases. Such a mode switching is usually performed by manual operation, which is not always smooth and is sometimes dangerous. To realize a human-friendly robotic system, the unified methodology for smooth initiative exchange is desired. In this paper, we propose a methodology of initiative exchange by introducing the virtual field around the robot. By employing the virtual field model, multiple users can interact with a mobile robot at the same time. Some concrete examples are also shown to realize the nonverbal initiative exchange by employing an optical beam interface.